Get Motivated with Goal Management

In every job I’ve ever had there have been goals to achieve. Depending on the organization there is a lot of time, thought, and energy that goes into defining them and rolling them up to the various levels of management. Even in my personal life, I’ve set goals for myself whether it is fitness, health, or home improvement. When you have a goal in mind, whatever you do either helps or hinders your progress. In a previous role at a large corporation I would sit through quarterly company meetings and when the financial report section came up, my energy level would decline, eyes glaze over, and on occasion I would nod off. Besides the room temperature, the reason was that I didn’t see a clear connection between what I did and what was in the report. While I know what I did made a difference, there were times that it was not clear how my contributions made an impact; that left me feeling unmotivated.

What motivates me is having clear goals, a plan of attack and a way to see the results and milestones. In Microsoft CRM 2011, a new feature is Goal Management and the whole purpose is to be able to set goals and track them. Individual employees can see their progress from day to day. In real time you confirm that “Yes! Today was a good day” or “Ugh, I should have just rolled over and stayed in bed”. Management and Executives can also see individuals' progress as well as a view of their team thus giving them the information they need to make adjustments to personnel, coach their team members, and perhaps refine the goals. Ultimately, management wants to see an increase in productivity and sales and this will give them the proof of productivity they need.

If you can quantify it, you can track it with Goal Management either as a sum of a numeric field or a record count. For example, if you want your Inside Sales team to make 40 prospect calls a day, you can track the number of records that were contacted. Goal Management isn’t just for a sales team. Think of your customer service or support team for a moment. Usually, they have a satisfaction survey to see how they are meeting their customer’s needs. You can track the results of these surveys using Goal Management. As each week or month goes by, you can see how satisfaction is fluctuating. Each team member can see how they are impacting this result and perhaps feel motivated to come up with ideas for improvement.

Want to learn more about the Goal Management functionality in Microsoft Dynamics CRM? Contact DFC Consultants where we are passionate about assisting our clients in meeting their goals. Since 1989, DFC Consultants has been providing accounting software solutions, training, and support in our offices in Fargo, Bismarck, and Dickinson, North Dakota. We specialize in Microsoft Dynamics CRM and GP. Join DFC Consultants for our Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 webcast on October 18th for a CRM overview